Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper

This consultation sets out plans and proposals to reform health and disability benefits and employment support. This Green Paper is an important staging post on a journey of reform, building on the vision and approach set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper in November 2024. It sets out our vision, strategy and proposals for change.

We want to improve and refine our plans by consulting on certain measures as described within this paper. We are committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people and people with health conditions at the heart of everything we do.

Who the consultation is aimed at

We are keen to hear views from a wide group of people, in particular disabled people and people with health conditions and disability organisations.

This consultation applies to England, Wales and Scotland. All the proposals apply in England. Note that the proposals in the consultation will only apply to the UK Government’s areas of responsibility in England, Wales and Scotland.

Social security and employment support are transferred in Northern Ireland, although the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive work closely together to maintain parity between their respective social security systems. However, we welcome comments from individuals and organisations in Northern Ireland, which will then be shared with the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland

Public consultation events

As part of our commitment to hear from members of the public directly, including disabled people and their representatives, we are pleased to launch the following public events on this consultation between April and June 2025:  

In person events across the UK  

Central London on Wednesday 30 April

Manchester on Wednesday 7 May

Plymouth on Tuesday 13 May

Leeds on Wednesday 21 May

Central London on Thursday 29 May

Glasgow on Tuesday 10 June

Birmingham on Wednesday 18  June

Nottingham on Tuesday 24 June

Belfast on Monday 16 June

Cardiff on Monday 23 June

Please contact the events teams to be added to the waitlist for this event at: events.pathwaystowork@dwp.gov.uk.

North East on Thursday 26 June

Please contact the events teams to be issued a ticket to this event at: events.pathwaystowork@dwp.gov.uk

All in-person events will be held at accessible venues in a central location. Attendees who successfully sign up for an event will be asked about additional accessibility requirements.  

As places at these events are limited, please use the Eventbrite tickets above to sign up. We will provide venue addresses closer to the date, via the email address you have submitted on the form. 

We will reimburse reasonable travel costs for those attending a face-to-face event in a personal capacity. 

Virtual events (across the UK) 

To share your views on specific parts of the consultation, we are running 6 additional virtual events, on the following chapters: 

6 May: Reforming the structure of the health and disability benefits system (chapter 2)

15 May: Supporting people to thrive (chapter 3)

20 May: Supporting employers and making work accessible (chapter 4)

28 May: Reforming the structure of the health and disability benefits system (chapter 2)

5 June: Supporting people to thrive (chapter 3)

12 June: Supporting employers and making work accessible (chapter 4)

26 June: Wales, Consultation event

Please use the Eventbrite tickets above to sign up for each event. Attendees will be sent a Teams link to the event once the event has been sold out, with additional joining details.  

For any additional queries related to public consultation events, please email at: events.pathwaystowork@DWP.GOV.UK

Accessible formats

All accessible formats of the Pathways to Work Green Paper are now available and can be accessed from this page. 

If you need physical copies of the accessible formats, you can order the following: 

• a Braille version 
• a large print 20 point version 
• an audio CD 
• a printed copy of the Easy Read version 
• a printed copy of the full publication 

The formats listed above can be requested via the email or postal address at the bottom of this page.